|
|
|
|
|
|
by 9oliYQjP
2464 days ago
|
|
|
It was a Conservative government responsible for this debacle. The previous Liberal government which had started legalization would have sold cannabis at LCBO stores which are in every neighbourhood and are run quite efficiently. Under the Conservative retail rollout, you can only buy cannabis via the online store (i.e., a 2-3 day wait for shipping) or a handful of physical stores. Toronto has a ridiculously low number of stores. There are roughly half a dozen stores with a capacity of about 40 people each to serve a greater Toronto population of more than ~6.5 million people. These physical stores which are the only legal way to obtain cannabis the same day, often have 20-30 minute wait line-ups outside. To give you an idea of what we're dealing with in this government, it is headed by a complete shit show of a politician. He's the older brother of the late crack smoking mayor and is a cheap dollar store equivalent of a populist. He basically got voted in because the Liberal government was long in the tooth having governed for 15 years. People wanted change for the sake of change and if that meant throwing out a well researched cannabis legalization plan, then so be it. Of course, the asme people that voted for the premier are some of the loudest to complain how shitty the current legal cannabis situation is. |
|
|
This is pretty funny. On what basis can you make this claim?
Putting aside fully private retail systems and considering only Canada, they are waaaay less convenient and accessible than stores in Alberta or BC, return less profits to the taxpayers than the alternative would. Not to mention the ridiculous selection: Ontario, which is much bigger than Alberta, has a total distribution of ~1/3 the SKUs of Alberta. That’s what happens when you have a monopoly, no innovation, no specialization!
Seriously, think about cigarettes, food or pharmacies! Governments can regulate, license and tax. They don’t need to run the retail itself!
The liberals own study [1] concluded that a privatized system would benefit Ontario far more, and it was promptly buried.
It truly boggles my mind to see how many people think the LCBO is great, efficient, provides excellent selection, convenience, etc. It isn’t, it isn’t, it doesn’t and doesn’t.
I can only speculate that keeping the LCBO was politically necessary for the liberals (because doing otherwise would require taking on the unions, and they got scared when they considered doing that in the early 90s), so they propagandize this message that the LCBO “makes a lot of money for the public” and they invest is keeping the stores (too) nice and clean so that everyone feels it’s a great system.
The change to give private licenses was the right move, and it’s a shame that it was bungled so badly. Though I think it’s fair that the current and previous government should share responsibility, given that it would not have been bungled if they had just elected to do the best thing for Ontario in the first place.
/rant
[1] https://www.fin.gov.on.ca/en/publications/2005/basr/report.h...